Tesla Gets $8M Gigafactory Tax Credit After Clearing Audit

Tesla has received $8 million in tax credits after passing an audit for investment and job requirements, says Electrek. Grant Thornton did the audit for the second quarter (April 1, 2016 through June 30, 2016), judging the total investments by the automaker, the number of jobs created, and the percentage of employees from Nevada.

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Tesla clears the audit

It was widely reported that the electric car maker received around $1.3 billion in incentives from the state of Nevada to build its factory east of Reno. But so far, the automaker has received only a fraction of that amount and is slowly unlocking portions of it as it reaches investment and job milestones under the agreement, says Electrek.

This week, the EV firm unlocked another portion of the transferable tax credits after going through an independent audit to verify that it was fulfilling those requirements. The audit was released recently, with letters exchanged between the Office of Governor Brian Sandoval and Tesla confirming the release of transferable tax credits totaling about $8 million. This included $2.025 million for qualified employees from the earlier period (January 1, 2016 to 31 March, 2016) and nearly $6 million for the audit period from April 1, 2016 to June 30, 2016.

Grant Thornton discovered that the automaker was employing 331 employees at the factory as of June 30, with 89% being Nevada residents. The average salary of the employees was around $53 per hour, according to Electrek. Further, the firm calculated that as of June 30, the automaker had invested around $450 million. Tesla, however, reported investments of $608.4 million in its third quarter financial results (as of September 30).

This Finnish city is ideal for next Gigafactory

On Monday, the City of Vaasa on the western coast of Finland announced that it is preparing a proposal for the Tesla Gigafactory. Mika Lintilä, Finland’s incoming Minister of Economic Affairs, said this is a good opportunity for the whole of Finland, according to Green Car Reports.

City officials believe that Vaasa has a good shot at the Tesla Gigafactory because it is located near Kaustinen, the largest lithium deposit in Europe. The “Vaasa energy cluster” will provide the electric car maker the required expertise to support its operations. Also the city is collecting a group of experts in relevant fields like project management, logistics, and engineering to refine its proposal to the automaker.

At 10:15 a.m. Eastern, Tesla shares were down 1.45% at $184.08. Year to date, the stock is down more than 23%, while in the last six months, it is down almost 17%.